No. 2 Bulldogs to Compete in ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship

NEW HAVEN, Conn—The Bulldogs will take to
the waters of Lake Mendota this weekend at the ICSA/APS Team Race
National Championship, hosted by the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. The three-day event will be held this
Saturday through Monday, May 29-31. Yale earned a berth at
the event through a third-place finish at the Fowle Trophy, the New
England Team Race Championship.

Collegiate sailing features two types of racing, team and
fleet. In fleet racing, one boat from each of 18 schools
races around a fixed course, with the first boat to finish earning
the win. The regatta winner is the school that scores the
lowest amount of points overall. Team races are bracket-style
competitions, with three boats from two schools racing against each
other. Like fleet racing, the first boat to finish receives
one point; second place receives two points; etc. The team
with a combined score of 10 points or less wins the race. In
practice, this means that the winning team must either have the
first-place finisher—known as “the one”—or
the second- and third-place boats—“the two” and
“the three”. The performance of an individual
boat on a team does not matter, but instead, which school finishes
in a given position. Therefore, one boat on a team might
sacrifice itself and purposely lose positions if it is in the
team's greater interests.

The ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship brings together the
14 best teams from each of college sailing's six districts.
The regatta will feature at least one round-robin, in which each
team races against every other team. The four teams with the
best win-loss record will transfer to the “final four”
round, where the championship will be decided. The 14 teams
are Boston College, College of Charleston, Eckerd, Georgetown,
Hawaii, Navy, Northwestern, Stanford, St. Mary's, Texas A&M
Galveston, Tufts, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin
and Yale.

Sailing for the Bulldogs will be seniors Thomas Barrows,
Sarah Lihan and Marla Menninger; juniors Blair Belling and Liz
Brim; and sophomore Joseph Morris.
Senior Mike Hession will be present to sail with Morris if the
regatta is windy.

The Bulldogs finished fourth at last year's Team Race National
Championship at the Treasure Island Sailing Center in San
Francisco.

The team's success this spring is all the more remarkable
because this is Lihan and Brim's first semester as a leg of the
team race team. Though Lihan and Brim are both accomplished
members of the Bulldogs squads, they had never previously team
raced together. The pair proved to be quick studies, and
helped the Bulldogs win the season-opening Mendelblatt Team Race,
hosted by the University of South Florida. Strong performances
throughout the season at the Friis-Marchiando Team Race and
Southern New England Team Race helped propel the team to a
qualifying position at the Fowle Trophy.

Lake Mendota leaves several questions outstanding for the
Bulldogs. The Women's Semifinals were cancelled without any
racing after two days of breathless calm. Forecasts suggest
that though conditions for Women's Nationals are no better, there
will be wind for Team Race Nationals. If anything, the
regatta may resemble the Fowle Trophy—one day of near calm
followed by a second of storm-force winds. The Bulldogs were
one of the best teams at switching gears between the wind
conditions at the Fowle Trophy, with the best win-loss record on
Sunday.

Yale has been tuning up for the event extensively since the
regular season ended. The team has practiced against Brown
University and an alumni team including a mixture of Zach Brown
'08, head coach Zack Leonard '89, Stu Mcnay '05 and Phil Stemler
'07. With luck, this practice will pay off with a national
championship by Monday afternoon.